St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-08-12


fireman. But the next engine went
down, and instantly the deed of death
was done. Car crashed into car; coaches
piled one on top of the other, and in the
twinkling of an eye nearly 100 people
found instant death, and fifty more were
so hurt they could not live. AS for the
wounded, they were everywhere. Only
the sleeping coaches escaped, and as the
startled and half-dressed passengers
came tumbling out of them they found
such a scene of death as is rarely wit
messed, and such work to do that 1t
seemed as if human hands were utterly
incapable. 1t lacked but five minutes
of midnight. Down in the ditch lay the
second engineer, McClintock, dead, and
Fireman Applegate badly injured. On
top were piled the three baggage cars,
one on top of another, like child's toy
block house after he had swept it with
his hand. Then came the six day
coaches.
THEY WE'RE TELESCOPED
as cars never were before, and three of
them were pressed into just space
enough for one. The second car had
mounted off its trucks, crashed through
the car ahead of it. crushing the wood
work aside like finder, and lay there
resting on the top of the seats while
every passenger in the front car was
lying dead and dying underneath.
Out of that car but four people came
alive. On top of the second car lay the
third, and although the latter did not
cover its bearer as completely as the
one beneath its bottom was smeared
with the blood of its victims. The
other cars were not so badly crushed,
but they were broken and twisted in
every conceivable way, and every
crushed timber and beam represented
a crushed human frame and broken
bone. Instantly the air was filled with
the cries of the wounded and the shrieks
of those about to die. The grOan OF
men, the screams of women united to
make an appalling sound, and above all
could be heard the
ACCOUNTING CRIES.
of little children, as in some instances
they lay pinned alongside of their par
ents. And there was another terrible
danger yet to be met. The bridge was
still burning and the wrecked cars were
lying on and around the fiercely burn
ing embers. Everywhere in the wreck
were wounded and unhurt men, women
and children, whose lives could be saved
if they could be gotten out, but whose
death, and death in a most terrible
form, was certain il the twisted wood
of the broken ears caught fire. And to
fight the fire, there was not drop Of
water and only some fifty able-bodied
men who had still presence of mind and
nerve enough to do their duty. The
only light was the light of the burning
bridge, and, with so much of it said,
the fifty men went to work to Subdue
it. For four hours they fought like
fiends, and for four hours the victory
hung in the balance. Earth was the
only weapon with which the fire could
be fought, and SO the attempt was
made to
SMOTHER IT OUT.
There was no pick or shovel to dig it
up; no baskets or barrels to carry it in,
and so, desperate, they dug their fingers
down in the earth, which long drouth
had baked almost as hard as stone, and
heaped the precious handfuls thus
hardly won upon the encroaching
flames. and with this earthwOrk, built
handful by handful, kept back the foe.
While this was going on, other brave
men crept underneath the wrecked cars,
beneath the fire and the wooden bars
which held prisoners SO many precious
lives, and with pieces of board, and
sometimes the hands, beat back the
hilNh up OlOli-otStO
some unfortunate wretch who, pinned
down by a heavy beam, looked on help
lessly while it seemed as if his death by
fire was certain, and while the fight
was thus going on. the ears of the work
ers were filled with the groans of dying
men, the anguiShed entreatieS of those
whose death seemed certain, unless the
terrible blaze could be eXtinguiShed,
and the cries of those too badly hurt to
care in what manner the end was
brought about, so only it would be
quick. So they dug up the earth with
their hands,
RECKLESS OF TIE BLOOD
streaming out from broken finger nails
and heaping it upon little mounds,
while all the while came the heart
rending cry: "For Gods sake. don't let
US burn to DEATH" Finally victory was
won, the fire was put out after four
hours of endeavOr, and as its last spark
died away, light came up i'll the East
to take its place and dawn came upon a
scene of horror. While the fight had
been going on men had been dying and
there were not so many wounded TO take
out of the wreck as there had been four
hours before. But in the meantime the
country had been aroused; help had
come from ChatSworth, Forest and Piper
City, and as the dead were laid rever-
emily alongside of each other, out in the
cornfield, there were ready hands to
take them into Chatsworth, while some
of the wounded were taken to Piper
City. One hundred and eighteen was